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Here’s a confession: for the past four or so years, all of my food waste has gone to landfill. I know, it’s a near-criminal admission to make as a gardener, especially one who made use of the compost turned by other, more selfless souls on my previous housing estate. But the problem was that keeping the stuff led, swiftly and inevitably, to mice. And between vermin and potato peelings for the greater good, the vermin won.

Balcony and urban gardeners have little room for composting, but I have been increasingly encountering wormeries in community gardens and urban farms and the concept thoroughly appeals. They encourage ecology in a built-up environment, less waste goes to landfill and, once set up, there’s a constant supply of organic matter and liquid feed. For someone who regularly carries home 50 litre bags of compost on public transport, such a notion was irresistible.

Finding a suitable contraption for a small balcony – not to mention a single-person household – has proved tricky. Surprisingly, my relatively small output of vegetable waste and humble ambitions make me a good candidate for vermiculture: a wormery, for instance, could struggle to process the remnants created by a vegan family of four, but as someone who eats a lot of eggs, drinks a lot of tea, and just wanted to make the journey out to the big bin less often, I could be the perfect worm custodian.

Somewhat miraculously, Wiggly Wigglers, who have been offering vermiculture supplies and support since 1990, have recently started supplying a new, small-space wormery. And, for the past two months, I’ve been trying it out (after taking it home on the bus – how else?)

The Urbalive worm composter is a Czech design that looks neat and elegant and is made with worms – and squeamish humans – in mind. It has a simple system of layered trays: the bottom is the sump, made for collecting that potent worm tea fertiliser. Then there’s the working tray, where you start your worms off. When the food waste fills that tray, you start putting it into the top tray. By the time that one’s full, the working tray can be emptied of worm-generated compost and moved to the top. The whole cycle starts again.

The Urbalive worm composter

It’s alarming how quickly one can get attached to the worms. When they arrived, I hadn’t set up the composter, so phoned Wiggly’s worm hotline, who advised me to keep them in the fridge (if they rub themselves together in their postal delivery bag they can die from overheating) and give them some food. Like some kind of indulged pet, they were fed Carr’s water biscuits, fresh from the box and crumbled into worm-mouth-sized pieces.

In the weeks that have followed I have variously: panicked about overfeeding them; panicked about underfeeding them; worried that the bin is too dry; worried that the bin is too mouldy; worried that they are too cold and worried that they are not mating. Mostly, I just worry that I have killed them all.

I have, however, learned what worms like (teabags, for mating, coffee grinds, banana skins, eggshells and vegetable peelings) and what they don’t (onion, chilli, ginger and animal products). I have also read seminal vermiculture tome Worms Eat My Garbage, which has just celebrated its 35th birthday and has spread the world of worm composting to 200,000 readers worldwide. I have wrapped up the wormery to protect it from cold (in a makeshift contraption consisting of bubblewrap, corrugated cardboard and old curtain) and gazed at its inner workings with the same concern Bake Off contestants emanate for their ovens.

Worms creating compost

Just as the Beast from the East blew in, and I truly began to fear for my little ecosystem, I was able to phone up worm guru Heather Gorringe, from Wiggly Wigglers, and bombard her with questions. Here’s what we discussed:

My worms haven’t really produced much yet. Is there something wrong?

Generally speaking, if you think it’s slow, you can add more waste. You don’t need to wait for the worms to finish the previous amount of waste before you add more. People are often go steady on the worms when they start – they don't add too much waste, they tend to be cautious – but those of us who have been doing it for a few years tend to just add the waste and let them get on with it.

I’ve been quite concerned about overwhelming them though.

That is often what a newbie to worms is very conscious of, but the worms are pretty resilient, they’re used to the ups and downs of waste. They’ll lay their eggs and they’ll move to fresh waste as long as there’s space, and if there’s no space, because there’s no fresh waste, they don’t lay their eggs as quickly, and therefore they don’t move on as quickly. Remember, when you add fresh waste it gives warmth to the kit, and that warmth helps them move on.

I’ve tried to keep them warm, but what happens if it gets too cold in there?

Worms are one of the only creatures that can freeze, thaw and survive. But it does affect their breeding ability. If it’s really cold, you’ll normally find the worms huddled together in the middle - they use themselves, and the fact that they move, to survive. I also add a bit of extra waste because as it breaks down it produces warmth.

30 per cent of your waste should be paper or cardboard

It is possible to induce mass worm bin death?

If there’s a real problem it’s usually because there’s no air in the kit and it’s far too wet – it means there’s no oxygen and then the worms will either try to escape or they’ll fall into the sump and drown. But, it’s really easily fixed – by adding some cardboard and aerating the compost – and even people who can’t find worms will find worm eggs, which are even more resilient than worms. Once you’ve got the conditions right, they’ll hatch out. It’s not often that you have to restock your wormery. A lot of people will top-up their worms, but they’re pretty resilient.

Do you tend to chop up your waste?

If I’m en route to the wormery I’m happy to do some tearing, but not chopping. It is true that the more surface area on your waste, or the more you chop it up, the quicker the worms can deal with it, but in the scheme of things, even when I’m harvesting the compost, I don’t mind if there’s a bit of banana skin in there, because I’m going to stick it under my plants anyway.

And what about mould?

Mould is OK, it’s a totally normal part of the decomposition process. I’d add a bit of cardboard if there’s loads of mould, as it suggests it’s a bit wet in there, but it’s not a problem. Usually it’s humans who get upset about having a mouldy bin – the worms don’t mind as much!

What would you say to someone who was curious about worm composting?

I think it’s a certain kind of gardener who will enjoy the challenge of a wormery. I don’t think we’re going to take over the world. Having said, that for lots of people they’re the best way of composting ever, because you reduce so much waste and you produce so much liquid. From my perspective it’s for the person who wants to get their head around the process and enjoy the fact they’re going to get lots of liquid feed and lots of good quality compost out of absolutely nothing. The customers with the problems are the ones who think they’re going to solve all of their waste problems with a wormery – you won’t.